• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, May 16, 2016

WPP digital agency Essence has appointed Anant Mathur to serve as its new Global Head of Analytics, effectively immediately. Based at the agency’s San Francisco office, he’ll oversee all aspects of analytics and research across Essence’s entire client roster. 

The position was previously held by Michael Thomas, who has shifted to the account side of the agency. 

Mathur joins Essence from Walmart.com, where he served as Head of Business Intelligence and Analytics, overseeing a team that spanned disciplines including marketing and site optimization, customer experience management, predictive analytics, and advanced analytics for merchandising, operations and customer service.  

Mathur also has agency, publisher and strategy experience.  Prior to Walmart.com, he held leadership roles in analytics and product management at Publicis Groupe’s Starcom Mediavest Group, Interpublic’s McCann, Yahoo!, Microsoft and Unilever.   

“Robust Analytics form the foundation of our entire business approach” said Andrew Shebbeare, co-founder and chief product officer of Essence, and to whom Mathur reports.  “We’ve worked hard to build a practice capable of proving the business impact of our clients’ campaigns in any medium and market. I’m delighted to have found such a kindred spirit in Anant. He’s equally obsessed with finding real value and just as suspicious of convenient correlations.” 

Mathur’s appointment comes a little more than two months after Essence opened three new offices in Chicago, Shanghai and Sydney. They were the first locations to be added to the agency’s footprint since it was acquired by WPP last November.